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FWC approves several changes to Gulf cobia management

At its December meeting in Gainesville, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) took final action to approve several changes to the management of cobia in state waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

These changes are based on stakeholder input and concerns from anglers, and will further promote sustainable management of this fishery.

Approved changes will go into effect Feb. 1, 2018, and include:

*Creating a Gulf/Atlantic management boundary defining all state waters north of the Monroe-Collier county line as “Gulf state waters” for purposes of managing cobia.
*Making the recreational and commercial bag limits for cobia in Gulf state waters the same by reducing the commercial limit from two to one fish per person.
*Reducing the recreational and commercial vessel limit in Gulf state waters from six to two cobia per vessel, per day.
*The current 33-inch minimum size limit will not change.

silverking wrote: *Creating a Gulf/Atlantic management boundary defining all state waters north of the Monroe-Collier county line as “Gulf state waters” for purposes of managing cobia.

So a single management zone, from the far left panhandle to M/C ? Interesting. Not sure how I feel about that

silverking wrote: *Making the recreational and commercial bag limits for cobia in Gulf state waters the same by reducing the commercial limit from two to one fish per person.

This makes a lot of sense, though the guides are NOT going to be happy for big party boats. Going to turn those dedicated multi-party cobia chasing days into a multi-species chases.

silverking wrote: *Reducing the recreational and commercial vessel limit in Gulf state waters from six to two cobia per vessel, per day.
*The current 33-inch minimum size limit will not change.

THANK BABY JEEBUS! I cannot imagine if they would have bumped it to the 37 or 39 they were thinking